Now Closed: Everything you ever wanted to know about EARTHQUAKES

EARTHQUAKES




Earthquakes happen all the time. Millions per year. And they are powerful:



Real-time Earthquake tracker
If you like Google Earth, you can get a layer

There was one in Oklahoma (just outside Guthrie) today! 4.2 magnitude. Anyone there feel it?

Magnitude? Richter scale! Logarithmic! Next level is 10x stronger than the next. Quantitative measure of the earthquake.



Mercalli Scale is for earthquake intensity, or amount of destruction. A qualitative report of the earthquake.


Human structures are the number one cause of earthquake fatalities. Scondary effects are also deadly and destructive.


Fire from San Francisco 1906 Earthquake

and Tsunamis




But earthquakes are nice because they helped us figure out the interior of the Earth!


And that's all because seismic waves propagate through different materials in different ways!




So, for a limited time, ask me any question you have relating to Earthquakes and their secondary effects!


Why this matters to you:


The gray area is the failed arm of that triple junction (3 different tectonic plates)...and it's where the Mississippi River runs.


The Baton Rouge fault marks where a huge piece of rock is separate from the mroe stable craton of the US.